Featured Artist

Charles Niehaus Portrait Sculptor

Charles Henry Niehaus (January 24, 1855 - June 19, 1935), was an American sculptor, born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Niehaus began working as a marble and wood carver and then gained entrance to the McMicken School of Design in Cincinnati and later studied at the Royal Academy in Munich, Germany. The effect of the German study was that he retained much of the neo-classic flavor in his art while most other sculptors of his generation were drawn towards beaux-arts realism.

Niehaus returned to America in 1881 and by virtue of being a native Ohioan was commissioned to sculpt a monument to the recently assassinated President Garfield, who was also from Ohio. Following that he created a statue of Ohioan William Allen that was placed in the National Statuary Hall in Washington DC, along with his statue of Garfield. In later years he was to place statues ofJohn J Ingalls (Kansas, 1905), Henry Clay (Kentucky, 1929), Ephraim McDowell (Kentucky, 1929), Zachariah Chandler (Michigan, 1913), Oliver P Morton (Indiana, 1900) and George W Glick (Kansas, 1914) in the Hall, making his eight statues represented there five more than any other artist.

Monuments by Niehaus can be found in many American cities. Several of the works authored by him are equestrian staues As was the case with other sculptors of his day he also fashioned a fair amount of architectural sculpture.